hey everyone, i went down with the kids and wife to the open practice today and saw 3 shirts with no numbers and didn't recognize any of them... #26 #23 #28 i believe those were the numbers. one of them whom i thought was kiki musampa but is in fact (meeting him after the practice) is dave simpson (sparta prague) and let me tell you his athleticism and pace on the ball impressed me very much. he seems to like it here and asked me (of all people) what i think of the field turf. i told him that a lot of guys seem not to like it and in fact don't play here because of it. he said it has a different bounce but he has no problems with it. anyway, he is hoping that he can sign on. he's a beast! probably about 6' 2" and very muscular but very agile. he looked quite different then most players on the pitch. however, i must say that when they were practicing finishing, he didn't look so hot which was disappointing but that could be (as he was saying) he needs to train a little more, get used to the players, the pitch and so on. but out of pure hustle and agility, by far this guy has some great skill and will certainly make a lot of problems for the opposition. gabe gala scored two goals in a scrimmage and looked quite good. (why carver doesn't play him sickens me) as i saw him do very well for canada vs argentina earlier this year. jarrod smith and joey melo also looked quite good. i think joey scored a goal as well. as far as the other two unknown guys go, one i have no clue who he is and was the only guy to wear a blue jersey (everyone else wore yellow or just the training jersey) he looked to be american/canadian maybe of european blood (italian/portuguese) played an offensive forward role as a central attacking midfielder or striker (it was hard to tell) but the other guy i met to but didn't want to ask him his name looked to be playing as a left back (but was fairly short - maybe 5'6"? also maybe canadian/american of european blood - spoke english very clearly) he did mention he played for malmo in sweden.. anyone have any ideas???
The player from Malmo is Derek Gaudet of Nova Scotia. I believe Gaudet was involved with the U-20 game against Argentina earlier this year. That is an interesting point about Simpson not hating the fake turf. I am a firm believe that one of the reasons we need more Canadians on TFC is that they are more willing to play on the fake stuff.
ya dave is a REALLY cool guy. had nothing but praises and it looks like he is willing to sign on (if tfc will have him) he will certainly add something to our team. it's more than likely gaudet - it just saw a pic of him on the v's board and looks like it could be him although i can't be 100% positive. the other guy from what i read on the rpb board is one of our development players - killian elkinson. is gaudet a defender or holding midfielder though? it seemed he played more of this role but he was on the left side if that helps determine that this is him or not... unless i got elkinson and gaudet mixed up... they did look somewhat the same from where i was although as i mentioned in my earlier post, one (whom i thought was elkinson) was wearing a blue pinny.
We definately need these young Canadians giving the older players a run for their money when it comes to the starting eleven. I'm 100% certain they'd play with more heart than half of the current line up.
There isn't anything wrong with giving these Canadians a shot, we need more of them to come through so we don't have to be trading away stuff for international slots.
I am beginning to wonder about that as well in terms of playing with heart. I hope I am wrong when I get the feeling that some of these guys, just want the paycheck. I firmly believe that Canada has some good young talent, good enough to play in MLS. I mean where do you think DeRo and Serioux played their youth soccer, yup in Scarborough. I grew up there and back in the late 80s and 90s whenever our rep teams went to tourneys in the U.S they did quite well and won quite a number of tournaments. The same could be said about Montreal and Vancouver as well. We just need better scouting and coaching to get our country to the next level